Futsal EURO preview: Group C

Russia won the first full UEFA European Futsal Championship in 1999 and have been strong contenders in every edition – and are so again this time in Group C against dark horses Serbia and Slovenia. Serbia are hoping to build on a promising 2007 performance while Slovenia, in the finals for the first time since ran 2003, ran Russia close in qualifying.

RUSSIA
Placed third in 2007 and runners-up two years before, Russia appointed a new coach last year in the shape of Sergei Skorovich, who led MFK Viz-Sinara Ekaterinburg to the 2008 UEFA Futsal Cup title (succeeding domestic rivals MFK Dinamo Moskva) and retains his club role. They qualified with their usual ease and after two friendly losses in Brazil have been on fine form, beating fellow finalists the Czech Republic, Belgium and Belarus. They will hope to go even further than on their 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup semi-final run.

Best performance: 1999 winners

Qualifying: Montenegro 7-1, Slovenia 2-0, France 2-0 (Group 7 winners)

Key players: Sergei Zuev (goalkeeper), Vladislav Shayakhmetov, Cirilo, Pula

Sergei Skorovich, coach: "We set the highest goals, especially because at club level we could not only compete, but won the UEFA Futsal Cup twice with Dinamo and Viz-Sinara. Our league is one of the strongest, we have top players. Our task is to unite them and get them to play quality futsal. If we have luck on our side, we will challenge for highest places.

SLOVENIA
Slovenia lost their three finals games in 2003 but only were beaten 4-3 by Russia and restricted them to a 2-0 in qualifying last March before an impressive 7-1 defeat of Montenegro took them to the finals. Their warm-up form has been mixed with narrow defeats by Belgium and Iran before a win and a loss against FYR Macedonia and draw with Romania, but Slovenia are not easy to beat and certainly will fancy their chances of pipping Serbia. However, there are injury doubts over Rajko Uršič, Igor Osredkar and Gasper Vrhovec.

Best performance: 2003 group stage

Qualifying: France 3-2, Russia 0-2, Montenegro 7-1 (Group 7 runners-up)

Key players: Benjamin Melink, Rajko Uršič, Gorazd Drobnič, Slaviša Goranović

Andrej Dobovicnik, coach: "We have set ourselves ambitious goals. We want to reach the quarter-finals."

SERBIA
Having not qualified since the days of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia reached the finals in 2007 under former player Aca Kovačević, who had revived the side the previous year. They performed excellently in losing narrowly to Russia, drawing with eventual champions Spain and beating two-time runners-up Ukraine. They only just made it this time as one of the four best runners-up but have held Italy and beaten Belgium and Belarus in friendlies recently and can call on Marko Perić, one of the revelations of the 2007 finals, though Predrag Rajić, joint top scorer in that competition, left international futsal in June.

Best performance: 1999 (as Yugoslavia), 2007 group stage

Qualifying: Greece 5-2, FYR Macedonia 3-2, Belgium 3-4 (Group 5 runners-up)

Key players: Marko Perić, Mladen Kocić, Milan Rakić

Aca Kovačević, coach: "Our players have a lot of experience behind them, with the last European Championship and from hard games in European club competition. Maybe this European Championship is our chance to make a big breakthrough."

For full results of all friendlies played by the finalists since qualifying, click here.